Republicans Plan To Be The Party Of Repeal

It’s unusual for a candidate or, worse, an entire political party, to define its message as being against something, but that’s just what Republicans are doing. Congress has now completed its work on health care reform, and the GOP is hanging its hat on working against what was just accomplished.

Republicans vowed to campaign for repeal in the fall election season, drawing a quick retort from President Barack Obama: “I welcome that fight.”

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“Repeal and replace” was the new slogan for Republicans as they pivoted away from earlier attempts to kill the health care legislation. Officials said it was meant to appeal to tea party activists — who staged an occasionally unruly demonstration outside the Capitol over the weekend — as well as to independent voters eager for changes in the health care system but fearful the Democrats went too far.

“Republicans fought on behalf of the American people this week and will continue to fight until this bill is repealed and replaced with commonsense ideas that solve our problems without dismantling the health care system we have and without burying the American dream under a mountain of debt,” said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Repeal was far-fetched in the extreme since Republicans are now deep in the minority in both houses and would need a two-thirds majority to overcome a certain veto by Obama.

Now all they have to do is try to figure out what they’re going to “replace” their “repeal” with.